Traditional methods of beginning to learn music have included instruments such as the recorder, xylophone, and keyboard, none of which incorporate learning methods in and of themselves. In other words, simply looking at or attempting to play any of these instruments gives no insight into formal musical subjects, which are necessary to a student""s study of music.
One educational standard currently in use is the recorder, which has the following drawbacks:
1. The organization of notes is unclear because the fingerings do not yield higher and lower notes in a linear fashion. Students learn about notes piecemeal without seeing the big picture of how they relate to one another in pitch and how they relate to the musical octave.
2. The recorder is difficult to play. It is not easy to produce a clear tone, and all to easy to make a squeak on a recorder. It is not hard to imagine the disruption of classroom learning that comes from putting a squeaky instrument in the hands and mouths of young children.
3. For hygienic reasons, it is inadvisable for students to share a single recorder in case, for example, one student forgets to bring his or her instrument. Aerophones invite this problem.
4. The recorder can only sound one note at a time, and therefore cannot be used to learn chords.
So why is the recorder so widely used? Tradition, perhaps, and because it is inexpensive, rugged, and portable, easily fitting in a school backpack. The present invention similarly satisfies the latter three criteria, and certainly keeps one foot firmly in tradition.
Other musical instruments currently in use for musical education also have shortcomings. Many xylophone-type beginner""s instruments are non-chromatic. Thus, they become obsolete early in the student""s musical development. Keyboards, which may or may not be portable and/or affordable, invite the musical novice to tape note names or color-codes on to the keys in an effort to remember which notes are where. Many of us have probably observed this phenomenon. However, this practice invites the novice to create his or her own learning method, which he or she may be inadequately prepared to do. Also, it is difficult to remove these learning xe2x80x9ccrutchesxe2x80x9d once they are affixed, making the student reliant on them when they should be internalizing the related concepts and moving forward. Also, many of the home electronic keyboards are overloaded with eye- and ear-catching features. They entice the consumer with preset rhythms and patterns to play along with, xe2x80x9cauto-playxe2x80x9d (where the instrument plays a tune on its own), and numerous natural and synthetic timbres. Products by such companies as Casio and Yamaha that fit this description are in the popular consciousness and need no further elaboration. While fun and gratifying, the plethora of extra elements definitely distracts from learning music on these instruments.
Other children""s instruments are closer to toys, whereas the present invention strikes a delicate balance between education and entertainment. Some of the very simple portable keyboards are monophonic (can only sound one note at a time) and therefore are useless for learning chords. The Carry Along Keyboard, made by Diversified Specialists, Inc., has numbers over notes, letters over flats and sharps, and note letters under notesxe2x80x94quite a confusing layout for a child to interpret. These aids, whatever they may mean, are not removable or interchangeable. This instrument thus lacks the developed progressive learning approach integral to the present invention. Also, importantly, it lacks the beauty and visual excitement of the present invention, or the means to hold it in different ways.
The Kid Keys by Playskool has note names permanently affixed above the keys for natural notes A through G. However, although sharps and flats can be played, they are in no way labeled. Also, the concept of an octave, which the present invention makes so clear with its one octave""s worth of buttons and separate Octave-Up button, is not explained, leaving the student to wonder why the same note letters repeat. (The same appears true for the Carry Along Keyboard above.) This instrument is monophonic. Also, it suffers from the distractions noted above with its inclusion of various timbres and pre-set beats to play along with. Also essentially, both the Kid Keys and the aforementioned Carry Along Keyboard are based on the piano keyboard, whereas the present invention triggers sound through slightly larger than fingertip-sized buttons, which are unique and not tied to a pre-existing standard instrument.
The Disney xe2x80x9cMickey Mousexe2x80x9d instrument including its colored keys makes use of the keys to play a musical matching game, where each button lights up and the user then presses that button as a means to play a song. This instrument may be a fun and enriching introduction to music, however it does not aid in the study of formal musical topics. It is more a game than a user-driven instrument.
The prior art also reveals numerous instruments, charts, and methods as musical learning aids. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,920,023, issued Jul. 6, 1999, teaches the use of a chart that can be affixed to a stringed instrument such as a guitar or violin. Also, U.S. Pat. No. 2,943,527, issued Jul. 5, 1960, teaches utilizing a xylophone-like instrument in which the keys can be removed and then replaced in the order necessary, according to provided song charts, to execute a song by simply playing the keys in a row. And U.S. Pat. No. 2,347,950, issued May 2, 1944, teaches the use of a chart for placement on a piano or other keyboard equipped instrument so as to allow persons without previous knowledge to immediately read music and play the music on a keyboard.
While the above described commercially available music teaching devices and suggested instruments and methods in the prior art noted above provide a valid initial exposure to music, they do not envision the advanced concepts clearly presented by the learning system of the present invention.
Therefore it is the primary object of the present invention to provide a progressive learning tool for acquiring the fundamentals of music.
An additional object of the present invention is to provide a music learning instrument and method encompassing both serious student requirements and decorative eye appeal.
Yet another object of the present invention is to provide an elegant learning method in which musical concepts relate to physical parts of the instrument and then to the sound produced by the instrument.
Still another object of the present invention is to permit the student to focus on the natural notes at first, with the other chromatic notes also available for more advanced study.
A further object of the present invention is to equalize the treatment given to each of the twelve notes per octave.
An additional object of the present invention is to introduce the student to an understanding of sharps and flats at an early stage.
These and other objects have been obtained by the present invention of an instrument and method for learning music.
It occurred for the above noted reasons that there is a need for a simple, relatively inexpensive instrument and learning method for beginner music instructions to enable students to more quickly grasp fundamental music concepts. Applicants envisioned a basic musical instrument that could be held similar to a variety of instruments, such as the piano, guitar, or horn, to thereby introduce an element of fun so as to assist in focusing the student""s attention on learning music basics. The instrument devised has thirteen large buttons on its top surface, dividing the musical octave from C to C in half steps. Eight buttons are of one color (e.g. white) denoting natural notes, and five buttons are a different color (e.g. black) denoting flats and sharps.
Four attachments are designed for convenient connection to the top surface of the instrument. A first attachment color-codes the natural notes according to, for example, the colors of the rainbow (or other suitable color arrangements), and places the color of the lower neighboring natural note above the button with a sharp symbol (♯) for sharps and the color of the higher neighboring natural note below the button with a flat symbol (♭) for flats. A second attachment puts the note names above the buttons and the musical notes on a standard staff notation (treble clef) below the buttons. A third attachment places only the musical notes on a standard staff notation below the buttons. A fourth puts only the note names below the buttons.
A current version of the present invention would consist of an instrument in the shape of a rectangular box measuring approximately 14xe2x80x3 in length, 4xe2x80x3 in width, and 2xe2x80x3 in height. Materials of construction can be wood or an attractive plastic material. The thirteen buttons are secured linearly a spaced distance from one another on the top surface of the box.
The instrument can be made available in an acoustic version, and also an electronic version. In the acoustic version xylophone-like internal keys will provide the sound, and in the electronic version sound will be provided by a suitable sound chip as will be more fully explained. The electronic version will also have an xe2x80x9cOctave-Upxe2x80x9d button on the top surface to the left of the playing buttons which shifts each of the thirteen main buttons to a note at least one octave higher, and a xe2x80x9cMute Barxe2x80x9d on the right side which cuts off the sound produced, and which could also feature a light to indicate when musical rests (silences) are taking place.
A suggested method for using the present invention would be as follow:
Step 1: Student is instructed to first acquaint himself with the musical alphabet using Attachment 4. (Note: The student correctly looks at Attachment 4 first rather than Attachment 1. However, when it comes to playing a tune, the student uses Attachments 1, 2, 3, 4 in order, hence the logic of the numbering.)
Step 2: Use Attachment 2 to help you play the C major scale, and thereby become familiar with the natural notes.
Step 3: Play one or more familiar songs (in the key of C) (from the book or manual that would be supplied) using Attachment 2, which allows the student to match up the standard notation on the sheet music with the standard notation and note names on the Attachment, and with the appropriate button to press to sound a certain note. Because the student will recognize the tune, it is not necessary for he or she to completely understand the rhythmic notation in order to make the song sound right.
Step 4: Learn about other key concepts, such as rhythmic notation and sharps and flats.
Step 5: Backtrack. Clap or play the rhythms of the previous familiar tune on one note. Learn the counting of the rhythms. Perhaps incorporate use of a metronome at progressively more challenging tempos (speeds).
Step 6 (optional): Play a familiar song from color-coded sheet music using Attachment 1. Actually, the student can try this at any time, and probably will be tempted to do so. However, the layout of this method encourages the student to at least try to work with some form of standard notation first because it has greater, more universal, educational value.
Step 7: Play the song again with Attachment 2, this time keeping track of the rhythm and trying to rely less on the aid of the Attachmentxe2x80x94It is a crutch that will soon be removed.
Step 8: Play the song with Attachment 3, which has musical notation, but lacks note names. One less learning aid means the student has to internalize more information.
Step 9: Play the song with Attachment 4, which just gives the note names, which are not written anyway in the sheet musicxe2x80x94meaning this last crutch gives only minimal assistance to the student.
Step 10: Play the song with no Attachment. By now the student should be up an running on his or her own.
Obviously there should be some flexibility in the learning sequence because no two students learn exactly alike.